Adrenal Maladaptation

Normal daily adrenal cortisol pattern

Wake up “bright eyed and bushy tailed” and fall into deep sleep when the day is done. Repeat the next day.

Adrenal maladaptation is an increasingly common clinical finding centered on inadequate and/or ill timed cortisol/stress hormone production. It is important to distinguish adrenal maladaptation from adrenal disease.

Addison’s disease is an acute hypoadrenalism where all adrenal hormones are under produced, and can be a life threatening condition without hormone replacement. Cushing’s disease is when the gland over produces cortisol and other adrenal hormones. Cushing’s syndrome is typically an iatrogenic (medicine caused) condition resulting from long term and high dose corticosteroid usage.

Over stressed daily adrenal cortisol pattern

Tired on waking, tired and stress intolerant all day, tired but unable to get good sleep. Repeat the next day.

A common pattern of adrenal maladaptation in adults is difficulty waking from sleep, day long fatigue and stress intolerance, followed by an inability to get high quality sleep. This experience pattern is mirrored by diurnal cortisol patterns that show too little in the AM and too much in the PM compared to normal. Overwork, high stress jobs and life changes such as death of loved ones, divorce, and caring for someone disabled, failing or in a terminal condition can lead to this dysfunction. The situation is made worse for women experiencing the transition to menopause at the same time.

For most, adrenal maladaptation is highly treatable. Regaining daily energy patterns and stress resilience under naturopathic treatments seldom requires long term adrenal hormone replacement.